Four Day Weekend

Bon soir mes amis!

I’m so delighted that I’ve finally reached my winter break, and have an entire four day weekend. So far, it’s been pretty fabulous. I checked out a play about the jazz singer Alberta Hunter on Tuesday, and while one of the actresses was exceedingly exasperating, the music was great and took up more than half of the show. Unfortunately, I bought our season’s tickets later this year so we’ve been sitting about a third of the way up in the seats, which is not as intimate as our usual fourth row vantage point.

Last night my sister and I went to see the Bedouin Soundclash, joined by The Junction, and both groups were awesome. The Junction had a fantastic bassist, who was super sweet when I met him after the concert. Their singer was pretty emo/screamo, and was really intense, closing his eyes for the complete duration of most of the songs. Bedouin plays super danceable indie-reggae, with influences as diverse as The Clash and Bob Marley. Jess and I really got our grooves on, except for a brief period when these rather tipsy girls were inadvertently shaking their hair in my face.

There have been some weird developments in politics recently, with the Gomery Report (which largely exonerated Paul Martin) seemingly increasing the Conservative’s ratings in opinion polls. Have Canadians been paying attention? I suppose I can understand voters’ frustration with the Liberals, even though it was Chrètien who’s really being blamed for the sponsorship scandal. However, how can they then transfer their trust into a party that clearly fabricated Dingwall’s supposedly exorbitant spending and Martin’s involvement in his rival Chrètien’s dirty dealings? There's still a great deal to develop in the next months before the inevitable election, so perhaps the electorate will shift their sentiments again. Sadly, politics is increasingly becoming about the spin rather than the reality.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised with Martin in his term as PM so far, with his opposition to Star Wars, creation of a national childcare system, spending in health care, and strong (albeit futile) stance against America’s ridiculous tariffs on soft wood. Today, Bush actually tried to rebut his critics’ arguments, and the result was truly pathetic. He said in a statement, somehow deemed appropriate on Veteran’s Day, "Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein."

What agencies might those be? Even Great Britain, known for it’s many intelligence agencies, relied only on Bush’s information in deciding to go to war. Nancy Pelosi wisely admonished Bush for politicizing Veterans Day, saying "On Veterans Day we should come together to honor those who have served in our Armed Forces. Instead, President Bush is using Veterans Day to try to bolster his political standing on the war in Iraq rather than honor our nation's men and women in uniform.” I suppose I should take solace in the fact that his approval ratings are ridiculously low right now, and the Republicans are totally trying to distance themselves from him today. Finally, the Americans may have a glint of hope!

Anyway, I should probably get going. I have to find some hillbilly clothes for a bowling night with the College and Career group at my church tomorrow. I’m not really sure if the vintage shop by my house sells much plaid, but I’m praying that they’ve got something that resembles what a hillbilly would wear. Sadly, I recently gave away my quasi-hillbillyish straw hat to the Sally Ann, and don’t really have anything else to wear. I hope everyone has an über fun weekend too! There’s a huge football playoff game that my team is playing on Sunday, and the outcome of the game will likely determine how the rest of my weekend will play out.

Enjoie votre weekend!